Good Evening Main Streeters!
I hope your week was great. This year is coming to a close and with that, we are up to the week before Christmas. Can you even believe it? I know I can’t I am not finished shopping yet but it’s getting done! Before I lived here in Florida, a long time ago when I was in high school, we actually came to Disney for Christmas and New Year’s, my family and I. I remember that we had Christmas morning in our hotel room and my parents gave us money to spend in the park, anyway we wanted! Some people do the parks on Christmas, but how to do you keep that magic of a home Christmas here in the parks for your kids? Let’s dig in!
- Decorate your room!
Did you know you could do this? For a price, you can even have Disney do this for you before you arrive. You can get your tree and decorate it with some Disney ornaments and bring your stockings. Bring your elf if you have one, you can do it all in your room! Now if you are flying in you can still do this. Take some non-breakable ornaments in your luggage and get a tree from a local store! When you are done you can donate it to goodwill, they take Christmas trees if you can’t bring it home. Making your room look festive can make a huge difference!
- Explore resort Decorations and Holiday Exclusives
Going to see how Disney decorates is a must! Every park is different, and they are all in the theme of that park. There are things that the parks and resorts do at the holidays that are not there for other times of the year. Like the gingerbread houses and the holidays around the world at Epcot. You can spend an entire day just looking around and getting in the Christmas spirit. I know I am lumping a lot of things into one category but it’s just so much. There is Candlelight Processional at Epcot, Christmas decor at Magic Kingdom, Jingle Bell Jingle Bam at the Studios and Animal Kingdom has really gotten into the spirit this year. Animal Kingdom has a show projection on the Tree of Life and animal puppets that walk around in Discovery Island. It’s all so beautiful.
- Cookie Stroll /Chip and Dale Game
So it’s not Christmas without a cookie! What better way to get your cookie on than with a cookie stroll. Here is how it works. At the holiday booths around World Showcase there are 6 cookies. You pay $2.50 per cookie for the 5 that are in Germany, Mexico, Canada, Morocco, and the American Pavilion. Inside the Festival of the Holidays booklet, you get a stamp for each stop you make. Once you collect all five stamps you bring your passport booklet to the sweet treats holiday kitchen for a free Santa Mickey cookie! Now while you are eating your cookies, you can search for Chip and Dale around world showcase. They have maps available at select locations and you need to find Chip and Dale in each country. Once you find them, you put a sticker with a matching Chip in Dale in the correct location. You then bring the map to the redemption location and get a holiday ornament! How cute is that? And you can burn off the cookie calories in the process! That is win-win my friends!
- Book a special Holiday Reservation
Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, book a special dining reservation for your family to enjoy! Minnie has a Holiday Dine at Hollywood Studios, but it is only for lunch and dinner. There are so many other options though! We loved Cape May for Christmas Eve because I am Italian and they had fish, but I say just book something fun! A restaurant that is special that you know your family loves! If you book a Candlelight Processional dining package, you get special seating and that is so worth it! Or if you just want sweets, book a dessert party.
- Go see the Parade on Christmas Day
On Christmas Day if you go to the Magic Kingdom at 11 am and 2 pm, you can see the Christmas parade. They do it all Christmas week long! It is the same parade as they have at the party, so if you miss the party, you can still catch this cute parade! How fun is that at Christmas! If you want to go to this parade, you need to get your spot early. I suggest going by Splash Mountain where the parade starts, it will be less crowded than on Main Street. If you want to get out quickly after the parade and go to open gifts or go to a different park, I would suggest watching by the entrance near Tony’s or the train station. This will give you a quick exit.
There you have it! Disney is magic at Christmas! I hope you all have a great last week of school! For all of my teacher friends, this is the last week we got this! Until next time!
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